Good day everyone.
I'm a 20 years old final year computer Eng student and also work part-time Desktop support. My experience is around desktop support, Virtual environment (Hyper V, Virtual box), Networking(CCNA), Windows desktop&Server environment.

We have been task to come up with any IT related problem solving project (In our current area of specialisation) for the year assessment. The project shouldn't be too complex and I can simulate in virtual environment.

I have 1 months to complete the project.
Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

7 Replies

So I apologize in the beginning if I sound silly, but I don't understand. Are you saying that you need to create a scenario that is intentionally broken and someone else (or another group perhaps) needs to fix? Could you perhaps provide a little more context?

I have managed a lot of projects within the IT Support areas, and most of the time its the small insignificant tasks that has the most impact.

Perhaps some of these could be in line with what you want to do;

Employee On-boarding via Process Flow - using an electronic business process flow tool as an electronic checklist (each step of the process, managers and departments are notified during the process, and IT can keep abreast of any IT Purchases before new staff starts, and this eliminates holding too much IT Equipment in the IT warehouse)

Loan IT Equipment Facility - users can "loan" IT Equipment when their equipment is not in working order, whilst waiting for new equipment, or whilst its being fixed.

Dashboard on Availability of Business IT System/Service Status - data/reporting is big for me, and employees/users can see if a certain service is down on our intranet site, instead of wondering/phoning IT support and reporting it for the 100th time.

Wifi via AD user login - user needs to have a valid network ID and password to be able to use Wifi services. vLAN forms part of this, as certain OUs will have different requirements.

Deployment Server - with standardized IT Equipment(IT Equipment standardizing is perhaps also idea for a project?), setting up a deployment server helps save time installing company applications, software and repetitive tasks.

Well, with the current state of affairs, the main topic at the moment is the virus and teleworkers (i.e. WFH) . Here are a few ideas/concepts

What processes would be involved with on-boarding (with device management), supporting, maintaining, and off-oboarding teleworkers?

What about instead if issuing hardware to all teleworkers they were able to use their own device (BYOD), but having you still able to maintain control of your intellectual property (thinking something like LTSP, RDP, VDI) while the user is remotely working? I realize that in some countries using personal devices for company business is not allowed or strictly controller, so this may not be appropriate for your country.

How will the remote workers interact with their colleagues without mostly never seeing them in person?

Here is a hot topic that isn't specifically an IT problem, but how will managers ensure their subordinates are actually working and not watching Netflix during work hours. What tools could be deployed to allow managers to keep track on employees? How should work processes changes for the WFH workers? What would the legal or ethical impacts of using such tool be? What approvals might be needed if this type of surveillance tool what used? Understand this would be company owned equipment monitoring.

What tools would be needed for the WFH folks, to give them an in office like experience?

How would IT support go about supporting WFH employees. In a typical business environment IT has control of what computers are used, what networking, what routers, what firewalls are deployed. In a WFH environment how does IT support that 100s of different configurations that employees (end users) might have in their homes or remote offices? How would IT offer remote (desktop) support? What tools could be used? If the user is able to connect via VPN then in-house remote access tools can be used. What if the user can't connect via VPN, how do you support that?

What about patching and OS upgrades for remote workers? They are connected via VPN so the unprotected remote computer is a risk to your network. How will you ensure it gets patched and current?

What would you do if the remote employee needed access to restricted Personally Identifiable Information (PII). What tools or methods would you use to protect this data from leaking out to the general public? In this situation would you want an excel file with PII on it sitting at multiple remote locations? What happens if the remote devicere is lost or stolen that contains PII, now could you protect this data? What tools could be used to either recover the system or destroy the data on this remote device so it couldn't be used?

Well, with the current state of affairs, the main topic at the moment is the virus and teleworkers (i.e. WFH). Here are a few ideas/concepts

I'd complement the same, as in your country, the lockdown is expected to last at least two more months, how to migrate temporary WFH solutions to a more serious solution for the next few months. (What kind of remote session or VPN is temporarily used with which issues of which ISPs of remote workers and which VPN would be more appropriate, ...)

This sounds like a Cornerstone Project, we reg requests to do those from time to time. The local Community college has a group of Engineering Students come by and you help them pick a Product, Process from your facility. They work with you to review the issues you have, then they go back to the "Drawing Board" to come up with solutions to the issues you are currently having.